can someone explain the reasoning behind the hood setup? why oh why has BMW gone with this hood on all their new cars?

what i'm referring to is the way that the hood ends several inches behind the grills, with the roundel placed on... the bumper? sure, the portion of the bumper where the grills and roundel are located looks nice and clean. but honestly, that gap for the hood placed somewhat arbitrarily in what my mind still interprets as the "hood" (i.e. anything behind the grills with the same character lines) looks AWFUL!

every time i see this, i think of the toyota camry. google it and you'll know what i'm talking about. when that camry first came out i laughed out loud at how rediculous it looked. the design of the car is nice but that gap totally throws off the front end. now BMW is doing the same? compare the F10 to the E90 LCI and you can get a perfect example of what looks right and IMO what doesn't. the F01 and the F10 look great... except for that ghastly hood gap. i can't stand it. i'll be pissed if i see this on the new 3

I am not going to worry about the exact details of the "looks" just yet. I think the renderings will be more or less borne out as essentially a downsized 5er, but we will see. I am more anxious to hear the tech details, especially since it seems we will be in for a load of four bangers. Eight speed auto? Engine details? Dimensions - and most importantly, WEIGHT?? If the standard engine is an unblown four cylinder and the car weighs as much as an E90, it will be a sad day for BMW enthusiasts. They absolutely must put the F30 on a serious diet.

can someone explain the reasoning behind the hood setup? why oh why has BMW gone with this hood on all their new cars?

what i'm referring to is the way that the hood ends several inches behind the grills, with the roundel placed on... the bumper? sure, the portion of the bumper where the grills and roundel are located looks nice and clean. but honestly, that gap for the hood placed somewhat arbitrarily in what my mind still interprets as the "hood" (i.e. anything behind the grills with the same character lines) looks AWFUL!

every time i see this, i think of the toyota camry. google it and you'll know what i'm talking about. when that camry first came out i laughed out loud at how rediculous it looked. the design of the car is nice but that gap totally throws off the front end. now BMW is doing the same? compare the F10 to the E90 LCI and you can get a perfect example of what looks right and IMO what doesn't. the F01 and the F10 look great... except for that ghastly hood gap. i can't stand it. i'll be pissed if i see this on the new 3

Quote:

Originally Posted by mapezzul

It is because of the EU pedestrian safety regulations. The design is a function of the regs and safety, in the EU the cars have sensors, actuators, pyrotechnics etc. that actually can raise the hood up and limit the impact.

Many EU brands now have similar bumper/hood lines because of this.

I hate that cut line as well. IMO it totally ruins the flow of the front end. I'd rather they make the hood out of plastic if they need it to be flexible for mowing down pedestrians. The whole pedestrian crash thing boggles me. Is it really that common and if it is how much of it actually happens at speeds where things like a blunt plastic leading edge really makes a difference?

awesome render, although I hope it doesn't end up like this, the 3, 5 and 7 are starting to all look very similar.

Just like they did before bangle.

I've said it before and I'm going to say again. I feel like they are apologizing for the bangle era with these cars (7,5,3) and I feel slightly betrayed by them because it seems like they are now going in the opposite direction.

For years they told us "You've got to trust us. These cars are the future. Soon everyone will be copying this flame surfacing stuff." and by the time the entire line had been bangled they all made sense and looked like nothing else on the road (in a good way IMO).

Now it's like they are saying "Oh, yeah... we just said what we had to to sell cars while that lunatic was running things. Thanks for keeping us in business. We're going back to making the same car just in different sizes and now... Here is the 5GT! You need one of these. It's the future...blah...blah. We're not just saying that, we mean it this time."